


Forest Fire

by starcrossedsolace



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: AU, Anal Sex, Angst with a Happy Ending, Champion Kylo, Eventual Smut, Frottage, Intially, M/M, One-Sided Attraction, Oracle Hux, Oral Sex, Slow Burn, Stalking, nameless character deaths
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-23 12:54:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20340436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starcrossedsolace/pseuds/starcrossedsolace
Summary: Snoke had six oracles. His greatest weapons, even more, prized than his warriors.All of them were regarded with the highest esteem.But one stood above all the rest. The man with the cold eyes who always whispered into the King's ear; the one who had won him all his battles.He was wicked and had hair like a forest fire.Kylo had never wanted anything so badly.





	Forest Fire

As he stepped into the Emperor’s Palace the high curved ceiling opened above him like an evening sky, swirling in colors of pink, blue and purple that were slowly fading into an inky black. The clouds that hung far above his head seemed so real. But it was all an illusion. A perfectly crafted world to fulfill the Emperor's desires. A man-made paradise.

Kylo had seen the real world, this diseased solar system. War-torn, fire-scorched, scarred beyond repair. There were still a few remnants of natural beauty. Places that were lost, untouched by the filthy hands of men. Buried gems that risked being exposed. All of them belonged to the Emperor now. And those worlds that did not, would be torn from the grasp of the beasts who held them. The other ones, the diseased planets full of greedy creatures were to be exterminated.

People were a plague on the land and the King sought to cleanse their sins and keep only those who would bring this galaxy true harmony. Harmony by the force of justice.

The King was the visionary, the architect and his warriors were the ones who swung the sword.

Kylo’s sword had met foe after foe until it was blood-stained and rusted.

After nearly three years of battle, carnage, war, and disaster, sleeping in makeshift houses as the bitter cold that made you numb to the core, he could return to the place he began.

He could return victorious, _the Emperor's champion_, prized above all the rest.

The old man had felt it during their first meeting, the energy surging through his veins. The fire burning in his eyes. He had told Kylo that he had been blessed with the power to be great.

The young warrior had proved him right.

He marched into the Throne Room clad in his war-torn armor. Blood painted his face and hair.

As he entered the hall, the Emperor raised his scepter. “To Kylo Ren, my champion! Defender of the Empire, destroyer of worlds.”

He heard cheers of admiration and cries of victory. It felt as though a thousand eyes were on him. But the only eyes he desired to see belonged to someone who had not bothered to glance at him once

The eyes of the tall elegant man that stood beside the king. 

The man whose visions had built an empire.

Snoke had six oracles. His greatest weapons, even more, prized than his warriors.

All of them were regarded with the highest esteem. 

But one stood above all the rest. The man with the cold eyes who always whispered into the King's ear; the one who had won him all his battles.

He was wicked and had hair like a forest fire.

Kylo had never wanted anything so badly. 

* * *

A quiet slave brought him to his new rooms. They were large and open, vaster than anything he had ever seen. He had gone from living in trenches and broken huts in foreign planets to a hall of his own. His bed could fit at least four people. His new home had a small pool and a balcony that overlooked the lake. It was more than anything that anyone could ask for.

He ran his fingers over the smooth marble of the sink, tracing the gold veins with his fingers. Such an elegant contrast to his rough, dirt-stained hands. 

Kylo washed and dressed in the fine silks that had been laid out for him by the servants. They felt so sublime. So soft on his skin, foreign in comparison to the thick garments he usually wore under his armor.

This was a different world. Long gone were his days of toiling on the battlefield. Now he would train the new recruits and carry out the Emperor’s war plans. Perhaps with the aid of the fiery redhead. What Kylo would give to have those pretty lips whisper into his ear. Those cold eyes gazing at him with admiration.

An abrupt knock brought him to the door. Even that was tall and elegant, with gold trim and an elegant knob. Something that seemed out of a dream.

A thin man stood on the other side. He was dressed in a long white robe with an obscure looking tall hat sitting atop his heads. One of the Emperor’s priests, he supposed. 

“Champion Ren,” The man greeted. “The Emperor summons you to his Chamber of Wisdom.”

Kylo nodded silently and followed the man. Only few were permitted to enter the room. Kylo’s mentor had seen the inside of the room several times. His youthful self had badgered the man with questions. What did it look like? How did it feel to stand before the Emperor? The man laughed and call him a green boy with wild dreams.

But now, Kylo was here, standing before the high decorated doors of The Wisdom Room. The sacred place where the Emperor spent most of his days. Waiting to begin his life anew.

The room was circular with large open windows that opened into a star-filled sky. Torches lined the wall. There was a heavy scent of incense and flower oil that was most likely from the nightly seeing ritual the King performed with his oracles. In the center of the room was a basin that seemed to function as a torch. The coals in its center were fresh and unlit. Around the torch was a large pool shaped like a crescent moon. A female oracle was sitting beside it, stirring her fingers in the oddly translucent water. Her eyes were vacant. Kylo watched them roll back into her skull as the water rippled. He couldn’t help but wonder what she saw.

As he approached the middle of the room, he met eyes with the Emperor. A magnetic pull caused his eyes to flicker to the right just for a second, to soak in the image of the beautiful man that stood at the King’s side. Dressed in white with a golden laurel in his hair, the prime oracle stood proudly. His blue-green eyes colder than the tundra that Kylo had nearly lost his fingers to on his third mission.

His precious oracle’s sweet pink lips were set into a hard line, his cold eyes staring right through the warrior, never looking at him.

“Kylo Ren, you have brought me five new territories and extinguished the unworthy filth that refused my humble offers to join our sacred union!” The King roared in his grainy voice. “For this, I crown you my champion. Kneel before me.”

Kylo took steady steps and kneeled before the mangled old man. He felt a priest trickle the sacred water onto his head. The King tapped both of his shoulders with the end of his scepter and kissed the top of his head. A strange energy surged through his body, filling him with a heightened sense of awareness.

“Rise.”

Kylo stood, his eyes hard and his face still. A warrior did not smile nor show emotion in the presence of the King. It would have been gravely disrespectful.

Several priests moved to light a fire in a basin in the center of the room.

“Hux, tell the young champion what you saw.”

The redhaired oracle glanced at him, his eyes riddled with boredom. “The fall of the five enemy planets. Your sword piercing the heart of the rebel king as your armies slaughtered his men. The destruction of the alliance that opposed our might by the hands of your faithful knights.” The man’s voice was void of emotion.

“And thus, it unfolded!” The King bellowed. His haunting laugh echoed against the walls of the room. “No one has brought me as many rebel heads as you. No one has secured as many territories. Kylo Ren, you are a divine gift. For that, you will be held in the greatest esteem.”

Kylo tried to focus on the old man’s words but he could not tear his thoughts from the striking redhead. _A divine gift, indeed._

He nodded solemnly to the man. “All I do, I do for your glory.”

The king graced him with a crooked smile. “On the night of the full moon, we shall hold a feast in your honor and perform the crowning ceremony so all can witness your glory.”

“Thank you, your highness. That is the highest honor.”

“An honor well deserved” 

Kylo nodded promptly. 

He waited as the emperor spoke to his high priest about the ceremony preparations, taking the opportunity to let his eyes roamed up and down the object of his desire.

His eyes darted to the oracle’s face, hoping for a coy smile or a look of appreciation. Nothing. He stood there, still with one hand placed elegantly over the other and stared into the fire that danced behind Kylo in the basin. 

“Lord Ren, thank you for honoring my summon. Tonight, I invite you to join me in my meditation room. Peavy will lead you there when the moon has risen."

Pride roared within him like a climbing flame. No one was permitted to meditate with the King; to learn his coveted secrets.

"Yes, sir." He said cordially. "My humble thanks."

The Emperor gave him a crooked nod. "Until then, you may take your leave. You will find your personal staff waiting for you. They will bring you whatever your heart desires. So, eat drink and take your fill! If there is anything you want, do not hesitate to ask Peavy, he is the head of your personal staff. He will arrange it.”

_Anything. If only that were true._

* * *

Maids and slaves poured into his room; feeding him, grooming him, bringing him an array of clothes. One of the King’s own servants came to him to lay out the proceedings of the coming ceremony. The feast would be colored with dancers, entertainment, exotic foods and fights to the death. 

He would sit beside the King and watch the festivities unfold. In the same place where his slain mentor sat several years ago.

It was exhilarating, the highest honor a man could receive within the walls of the castle. The power, the prestige, and the reputation were all his. 

But it wasn’t enough, even when Kylo slept upon the soft sheets of his massive bed, in the room that men only dreamed of, he saw those cold mocking eyes looking down at him. Luring him in. 

He knew his longing for the Oracle was a dangerous thing. A prized Champion could have anything he desired. No delicacy, weapon, woman or man was off-limits if you were fierce enough to win Snoke's highest praise. Except for the oracles. Even the King himself refrained from touching them outside of invoking their visions.

But he could not smother his desire. It grew inside him every day. Rising higher and higher like the flames of a growing fire. Burning in his eyes every time the beautiful redhead was in sight.

Kylo had longed for him since his first invitation to the King’s Paradise.

He recalled the days of his youth. He was an eager boy, with a deep desire to become something great. At 18, he was the youngest warrior to ever step foot in the King's home. 

He had looked up at the skydome ceiling in awe, humbled by the large pillars. It was grander than any of the fortresses he had trained at before. It was wondrous. But the most amazing of all the sights was the beautiful redhead that stood just two down from the king.

Hux was the beauty’s name. It had taken him over a year to discover it. He mourned his ignorance all the years before. Kylo was not sure if it was his given name or a family name. Perhaps it was a name the Emperor had given him. He would know soon enough, he felt it beneath his skin. Crackling within his blood, an electric force.

It had been a year until he had seen the beauty again

Hux was young then. A budding youth that had grown into an even more beautiful flower. He had quickly found his place beside the King, outshining the other oracles with ease.

Outshining any other being, in Kylo's eyes.

Kylo's mentor had known of his admiration for Hux and found it quite puzzling. Yes, the green-eyed man was beautiful but he never smiled. And he took an interest in nothing but his work. 

He was cold and distant and wouldn't Kylo prefer the soothing warmth of a woman or the stamina of a young budding warrior? 

Desiring an oracle was a dangerous thing, the old warrior had told him. The call of lust was not worth losing your head.

The young soldier had tried to will the thoughts of the beautiful creature from his mind. He had hoped that the many miles between them would squander his desire.

But every time he woke it was fiercer than before. Consuming him.

Years had passed. Kylo had nearly lost his life four times. But he had risen above it all, so fate could bring him back here. To the place where he first laid eyes on the object of his desire. The place that his strange dreams of the man had begun. He knew it was a sign. The stars had aligned them, and there was no going back.

He needed to get close to him. Bait him, lure him in, make him his.

He needed the oracle as fiercely as he needed air. And he would risk his life to have him.

* * *

The moon rose and fell. Kylo sat beside the King at his meals. He had been blessed by the King’s high priest. He had tried foods he never dreamed of, received gifts from the farthest places in the solar system, drank the finest wines. Yet he had not been graced with the presence of the alluring oracle even once.

Hux was a solitary being, it seemed.

Kylo had seen him sitting alone in the gated library and in the high tower of the White Hall. He took no company aside from the occasional presence of an old female oracle who seemed to have some significance to him.

Without the benefit of visual fixation, his mind had to paint its own pictures.

Most nights he would linger in his large room with his hand wrapped around his cock as images of the Oracle danced in his mind.

He ached to touch the smooth, porcelain skin, but he feared that his rough calloused fingers were not worthy. _Perhaps his mouth would do._

He imagined those long legs wrapped around him eagerly. Biting into those milky thighs. Worshiping every inch of that perfect skin until that pretty mouth was begging him for more.

He would fuck him slowly, at first. Until he was debauched, undone, lost to the pleasures of Kylo’s touch.

He'd ruin the man for anyone else.

* * *

The circle garden was at the end of a long promenade. It was the lushest of them all, carefully guarded as few were permitted to enter.

Kylo recalled staring longingly at it in his youth. Though he had only been blessed to visit the King’s paradise a few times, the memories were burnt into his mind. The flicker of red hair disappearing behind the garden gates.

He had come here five times now. It was quiet and nearly empty, a fine place to meditate and center himself in the force. Each time he entered he searched for a flash a red hair, but he had not yet been granted such a luxury.

A wild wind came from the east, rustling the leaves of the trees, pulling the flowers into a mesmerizing dance. It seemed foreboding somehow. Whispering stories from lands far away. Birds tucked themselves in the trees to escape its force.

A few women that were sitting in the garden had scurried away to escape the gust, but one figure stayed stationary.

Laying across the wide rim of the garden fountain, Hux lingered languidly. His eyes were half-open, fingertips dipped into the crystal-clear waters. His body was lax, and his fiery hair spread about his head like a halo. He seemed so uncharacteristically undone. Finding solace in the exclusivity of this private garden where he could allow the sun to kiss his pale skin without suffering the gaze of ogling onlookers.

The wind played with the cloth of his long white robe, lifting the light fabric in dancing waves that exposed his long shapely legs.

Kylo stared in wonder, the gods had brought him here. He was certain of it. The stars had chanced them to meet in this place, _alone._

At the sound of his footsteps, the oracle rose briskly. He bristled like a cat in the face of danger. His cold eyes slicing through Kylo fiercer than any blade.

“This is a private garden.” His clipped voice cut through the air. His pretty lips formed a poignant sneer.

“That I am permitted to wander. Or did you not see that in your visions?” Kylo teased the bristling little minx.

The sneer seeped with venom. “If my visions were so trivial, do you think I would be here?” The oracle said nonchalantly. “Consider yourself extremely luck that _you_ are here instead of lying in the dirt in a foreign land as your entrails feed the weeds.”

He smiled slyly as he watched the oracle cross one leg over the other and pulled his robe as tightly around him as he could. He sat prim and proper, defenses higher than the garden wall.

“Are all your visions of me so colorful?”

“If you mean nightmarish, then yes.” He did not allow Kylo the grace of looking into his enchanting eyes as they fell upon the waters of the fountain.

“So, you do see me?” Kylo closed in on him. “Daily? In the midst of your pretty little dreams?”

This was a dangerous game, but he had tasted fear so frequently that he had become numb to it.

The oracle scooted back, retreating. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

His voice echoed in Kylo’s mind as he slipped behind the citadel doors.

* * *

Each day passed like the next. Empty. This large room felt lonely with no one to share it with.

Had Hux dreamed of him too?

He had visions of Kylo, that was for certain.

Kylo had known that for several years now. When he was a young soldier, a bold oracle told him that she was jealous of the redhead’s frequent visions of him. She spilled the secret as she tried to lure him into her grasp. Even in the ignorance of his youth, he was not stupid enough to risk his life for someone as unworthy as her. There was only one person he desired. One person who was worthy of his greatness.

Kylo had begun to take walks in the main garden, not for the love of flowers or the serene atmosphere, but to gaze at _him_. Hux’s room was on the west side of the White Hall. His balcony was above the main garden. At evenfall, he would linger there under the fading sunset.

Kylo was not permitted to go into the White Hall. No one was, other than a handful of maids. Kylo had heard that all of the guards within the White Hall were eunuchs. For the oracles wore white to represent their purity. If an oracle was tainted then their visions would cease, so said the ancient scripts. 

Kylo stood beneath the heavy blossoms of a fig tree and watched as Hux strode onto his large marble balcony. The sun was setting, bleeding orange, pink and yellow across the blue wash of the sky. Those colors danced about Hux’s face and gave him an ethereal glow. He truly must have been crafted by the hands of the gods themselves. For he was smooth as a marble statue.

Kylo would watch him gaze into the distance, night after night. Looking at the mountains across the land, and the stars above. Like a caged bird, dreaming of flying.

Did he desire more than this gold-plated prison? Is that why at night his bitter gaze would drift away with the summer wind to leave a sad look of longing.

_If he were mine, I would give him all that his heart desired. Tear kingdoms apart for him. Scourge this world for his every whim. _

_Mine, mine mine._ Raw emotion ripped through him like a wildfire_. _He would not rest until they were together.

* * *

The full moon was high in the sky. The flames of the pyre danced to the low beat of the drums. The way they twisted and turned was much more enchanting than the mellow sway of the ceremonial dancers. Many of the warriors around him watched the dancing women with hungry eyes. But Kylo only had eyes for one person. 

The moon’s light gave Hux a radiant glow. Today he was dressed in a long gown with a solid gold belt that encircled his trim waist. The material was nearly translucent, following the delicate curve of his body. Kylo felt his mouth water. He was just a few steps away. Within minutes his hands could be upon him.

He took pleasure in watching the redhead's lips form a wicked little smile as he watched one man cut down another in the fighting ring.

“So, you _are_ capable of smiling.”

Hux’s eyes flickered toward him for a moment before drawing back to the fight.

“Don’t you have anything better to do, than harass me?”

“I thought you enjoyed my company.”

Hux grimaced.

“You are more delusional than I thought. But I suppose, only a fool would dash into battle against an army twice the size of his.”

Kylo smirked. So, he did think of him.

“My boldness was rewarded. But you already knew that. You probably saw it far before anyone else.”

Hux rolled his eyes and turned farther from Kylo’s view.

Kylo advanced toward him. “Tell me”, he whispered into Hux’s hair. “Do you dream of me so actively at night as you do during the day?”

Hux turned to glare at him, his eyes alit with rage.

He parted his lips but did not get a chance to speak.

A frightened scream ripped through the air.

A drunken man had tried to lay hands on one of the young oracles. The girl shrunk away from him, sobbing, as the guards wrenched the fool off.

_An oracle was nothing without their virtue. _

The struggling man was dragged away. He screamed profanities and fought tooth and nail to free himself. But there was no avail.

The whole festival had gone silent, aside from the man’s screaming. All eyes watched as the guards forced him up the stairs of the balcony that loomed over the pit of the great pyre. The higher he got, the more he began to beg. Until the roar of the crowd overpowered him.

A victory cry tore into the air as the man plummeted into the fire, his screams rising into the night sky.

Kylo felt a sinking in his stomach as he watched the man’s flesh begin to char.

_No one touched the oracles. Not even the king._

As he takes a much-needed sip of his wine he feels a pair of cold eyes lingering on him.

Hux’s lips are painted in a smug smirk. His eyes are as sharp as daggers, _a look that could kill_. And the beat of the drums rages on into the night far after the man’s screaming has stopped.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm Huxative on tumblr & twitter if you want to say hello


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